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Rehandle Help

This is a different kind of rehandle, though. I'm thinking of rehandling my Dad's old Estwing claw hammer. It's a 20oz hammer that I made sure I got when he died, over 11 years ago. For some reason, this hammer and his Snap-On pocket knife have always stuck out in my mind, when I think of him. Unfortunately, the knife disappeared, but my "everyday" hammer is the one I inherited from him.

Well, the hammer is as awesome as ever, but over the course of 20+ years, the handle is cracked at the bottom and sliding off the shank. I am wanting to either put a nice wooden handle around, for a hybrid/hickory look, wrapping it in leather, like the other Estwings we all know, or maybe getting a dyed piece of maple to have a similar look, but give it an interesting update. The issue with this is, I can't find any stabilized, dyed maple big enough, and I'm kinda wondering how to go about it. I'm assuming I could do it like a wa rehandle, but the shank is so long, I doubt I could drill far enough into the wood.

So, what do you guys think I should go with, and how do I go about it???

It looks just like these, but of course, with more of a claw at the back.

Would think that the primary function of the handle would be shock absorption - both for the user and the hammer. Would something elastic topped with scales work and look nice? With that I'll defer to our resident engineers.

Hmm, that is a hard one. How hard are you going to use it? I think I would start by removing the old handle and seeing what the shaft looks like. Then probably go from there. I guess you could just get a big piece of hickory and drill out then center then shape it from there, Or even just a bunch of leather oval spacers.

A long time, generally well respected company like this should give you good response. I always write to companies when I have a problem and have gotten everything from coupons to free stuff, or at the very least good advice or direction. 'Course you don't want a free hammer, cause this one is your dad's, but I bet they come up with something for you when they find that you are trying to restore what is basically a family heirloom from their company. Try to get past the receptionist to someone in the shop.